Take a lesson, premiers: women’s soccer leading the charge on gender equality

OTTAWA—If you only followed last week’s Council of the Federation meeting, you might believe that political gender equality and equity were in retreat. The annual premier’s meeting was notable not for its pronouncements, but for its pictures. Each shot featured male leaders, as, for the first time in a number of years, there are no female first ministers present, as none hold the top job in our provinces and territories. If that politics barometer depressed you, turn south of the border for inspiration. No, not U.S. President Donald Trump’s offensive comments toward four congressional women of colour, telling them they should go back to the “broken and crime-infested countries” they come from. Trump’s bile is being disrupted by the force and might of Megan Rapinoe. Some might still be asking, "who is Rapinoe?" Well unless you and your smartphone were hidden under a rock that blocked cellular service, you should know Rapinoe is the co-captain of the World Cup Champion U.S. women’s soccer team. She is arguably one of best soccer players, female or male, on the planet and the most effective, credible communicator the sports world has seen in a long time. Ashlyn Harris, Megan Rapinoe, and Ali Krieger of the U.S. women's soccer team, pictured with the FIFA Women's World Cup trophy. Photograph courtesy of U.S. Soccer's Facebook Rapinoe and her teammates, who have won multiple world championships, have made it a constant mission of theirs to throw the world of sports, first, and the broader world, second, upside down when it comes to equality and equity. Women in sport have rarely had an equal voice or an equal pay package when compared to their male counterparts. Team U.S.A. has used the platform afforded them by winning the world’s most popular sporting title not to bask in their own glory, but push the global agenda with more potency than even the most seasoned political leader. Rapinoe is sick of the argument common in sport, that revenue goes to male sports because that is where the audiences are. Except that is now potentially changing. The Women’s World Cup that just finished in France enjoyed record viewership. For the final game, in the U.S. alone, a combined 15.3-million people watched the game live. That also was the highest audience of the weekend for U.S. television. It even beat the U.S. audience for the 2018 Men’s World Cup. That sat at 11.3-million for the final. Then, on July 14, American corporate behemoth Proctor & Gamble proclaimed its support for equal pay in a full page ad in the New York Times. The company went on to donate $529,000 U.S. to the women’s national team’s players association, which has been challenging, through legal and other means, the inequality they experience. In the ad, Proctor & Gamble said: “Inequality is about more than pay and players. It is about values.” This has been Rapinoe’s constant refrain. Rapinoe’s current clout extends well beyond the soccer pitch. As the Times ad appeared, she was on the iconic political and current affairs program Meet the Press (NBC). Speaking of the actions of Proctor & Gamble, she said: “These are some of the most powerful corporations, not just in sports but in the world, and have so much weight they can throw around. And I think that they just need to get comfortable with throwing it around.” Go, Megan, go! So while the premiers were at a prostates-only party in Saskatoon and Donald Trump was being Donald Trump, the U.S Women’s National soccer team was disrupting all manner of cultural norms. Change was happening in real time. Global corporations weren’t resisting, they were enlisting. FIFA, the world’s governing body of soccer, had also already committed to double the prize money for the next Women’s World Cup. It is still below the men’s, but change is happening. Rapinoe doesn’t look like she is running out of steam any time soon. And given the current political climate in the United States, she and her teammates have astutely sensed the moment is to now smash as many societal structural barriers down as they can. Let’s cheer them on. Tim Powers is vice-chairman of Summa Strategies and managing director of Abacus Data. He is a former adviser to Conservative political leaders. The Hill Times